"You might as well come Richard unless you want to get lost at your new school," Bruce said, standing by his adopted son's door.

"I don't want to go to another school! I was happy just where I was! You ruined everything for me!" Richard yelled back. Bruce sighed before pulling out the key he kept with him at all times: the one that let him into Richard's room incase he locked the door.

"I still don't know why I got you a lock for your door," he muttered while walking into the dark room. Richard was sitting on his bed, staring at the floor, completely ignoring Bruce.

"Come on Richard, get dressed," Bruce said.

"It's her birthday today," Richard said, barely above a whisper. Bruce caught it and sighed once again.

"You've got to let her go Richard, obviously Kory doesn't want to be with you," he said, regretting the words once they slipped out of his mouth.

"SHUT UP!" Richard yelled, standing from his bed. The sound of cracking glass was heard as Bruce stepped away from him. Both their eyes darted to the picture frame Bruce had just broken and tears filled in Richard's eyes when he saw that it was a picture of him and Kory.

"I'm sorry Richard, I didn't mean to," Bruce said, bending down to pick it up, but Richard stopped him.

"Just go," he said, quiet once again.

"I can go get another frame," Bruce said.

"No you can't, it was a gift from her. Please just go. I just want to be alone," Richard said, picking up the now broken picture.

"Alright, we can go tomorrow," Bruce said, walking out into the hall.

"No, I'll just find someone to show me around on the first day," Richard said before closing the door and locking it, not bothering to pay attention to what Bruce was saying. He slowly walked back over to his bed and sat down once again, the picture still in his hand. A single tear fell from Richard's eyes before he shot up from his bed and in his state of rage, he knocked all of the things off of his dresser. Glass broke once again when he grabbed a chair from his desk and swung it at the mirror. It took multiple swings before the mirror finally shattered and glass littered his ground. Next Richard took all of his clothes out of his dresser and began tearing them apart, the pieces landing all over his floor just like the glass. He the knocked over all of his furniture until only his bed was still there and even then the sheets were torn.

"Why?" Richard thought, not exactly what he was asking. There were a lot of things he had to ask, that one word just seemed to sum it up the best. Why had Kory left him? Why had he been so stupid to say all of those things? Why was it effecting him so much? Why was he doing all of these things? Why did his life feel like it had no purpose?

Deciding the best way to find answers to these questions was to first calm his mind, Richard made his way to his bathroom which was untouched by his mad rampage. Along the way, glass pricked at his feet, but her never once winced in pain. His mind was blank and only returned to him when he made it to the bathroom and the glass began to sink into his foot as he walked on the tile floors.

"Damn," Richard hissed, looking down at his bleeding feet. He then looked back into his room to see foot prints of blood leading towards the bathroom. Searching through the drawers, Richard soon found a pair of tweezers and sat down on the counter, holding his foot over the sink as he began to pick out the pieces of glass. A low hiss of pain was the only other noise beside the sound of the glass dropping into the water below which was now a dark red color thanks to all of Richard's blood. When he was finally done picking out all of the glass, Richard stripped from his clothes and turned on the shower. The warm water ran over his body while he tried to regain his train of thought. As of now everything was all jumbled up in his head and Richard couldn't think straight for a minute before he would blank out or start thinking of something else.

"Why is everything so hard now? Why can't it just go back to the way it used to be?" Richard thought, his mind going back to the 'why' questions. Though he had said it before, told her millions of times, Richard realized the reason he felt this way was because he was in love with her. Head over heels in love, to the point where he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but she wanted nothing to do with him. He also knew that seeing her with another guy should drive him to the point of insanity.

"I love her, I need her, and I can't live without her," Richard thought, running his hand through his wet hair.

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"Happy birthday Cutie," Xavier said, holding out a bouquet of red roses while Kory smiled.

"Thank you Xavier," she said, taking the roses and giving him a peck on the lips. It had been a couple of weeks since they had turned Roy in and the two were still together.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner tonight, my treat," Xavier offered, leaning against the counter while Kory put the roses into a vase.

"Sounds great. My parents were talking about flying in, but my dad can't get out of it. Maybe next year," she said sadly.

"Well its sort of a good thing because I didn't plan on sharing you with anyone today. Just you and me," Xavier said, wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging his girlfriend from behind.

"That sounds good," Kory smiled, leaning her head against his shoulder with her eyes closed.

"Yup and I've got the whole day planned out, starting with a relaxing massage," Xavier said, already starting on her neck and shoulders.

"This feels wonderful Xavier," Kory moaned slightly, her eyes fluttering closed while his fingers worked wonders.

"I've been told I have a way with my hands," Xavier said, his breath hot on her neck. He then began to move his fingers down her back and along her spine. This when on for a few minutes before Xavier wrapped his arms around Kory's waist and began to kiss her neck.

"It's a shame my birthday only comes once a year, I could've gotten used to that," Kory said, placing her hands on his.

"I'll give you another massage later, right now we're due for sun and sand at the beach," Xavier said.

"You really do have the whole day planned out, don't you?" Kory asked, smiling as he drug her upstairs.

"Pretty much, now get changed or you'll mess up my schedule," Xavier said, earning a giggle from his girlfriend.

"No boys in your room while I'm still here," Carmen said, walking past the couple and towards her own room.

"Sorry Xavier, she's the boss," Kory said with a grin before closing the door behind her when she went into her room to change. Xavier crossed his arms and glared and tapped his foot impatiently.

"You can stop tapping your foot, I'm done," Kory said, returning from her room.

"Finally, it only took you like forever," he said, taking hold of her hand and pulling her towards the stairs.

"Are you mad because you couldn't see me change?" Kory asked, talking to him like he was a little kid.

"No! I was just gonna be there to make sure you didn't take too long. I have the whole day planned out and that isn't scheduled until after I take you out to dinner," Xavier said with a smirk.

"You're such a pervert," Kory said with a giggle.

"I have my cell phone Carmen," she called to her sister before being pulled out of the house and towards Xavier's motorcycle.

"Hold on Cutie," he said before taking off in the direction of the beach.

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"Richard I need to talk to you for a moment," Bruce said, knocking on the bedroom door. He waited for a moment more before Richard opened the door just enough to stick his head out, but not enough for Bruce to see the mess inside.

"What?" he asked.

"There's a dinner party tonight and you're coming with me. It will do you some good to get out of your room," Bruce said.

"I don't want to go," Richard stated.

"That's too bad because I'm taking you with me. Be ready in an hour and dress nicely," Bruce declared before turning away and leaving.

"Why does he always have to drag me around to these kinds of events? There's never anything to do and I get bored as hell. At least he didn't see my room. If Bruce saw that I'm sure he'd have me checked into some kind of psycho ward," Richard through grimly, walking along the path that he had made through the glass to get to his bed. So far Richard had managed to clear a path through the glass using what was left of the back of his chair. He also picked up the shreds of clothes and put them into a black garbage bag. As for his feet, they were wrapped in some gauze he had found in his bathroom with socks over that.

"Good thing I put all of my suits in my closet," Richard said aloud, walking over to look at the only clothes he had left. After pulling on the suit and his shoes (carefully), Richard combed his hair into its normal spiky look and left his room. Bruce was already waiting for Richard by the time he got down the stairs.

"Glad you decided to come on your own," Bruce said before turning towards the door and leaving the manor. Richard sighed heavily before leaving as well.

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"When can I open my eyes?" Kory asked, waiting patiently while Xavier pulled her along.

"Just a bit longer and then you can," he said, smiling at her obvious pout.

"You said that like five minutes ago," Kory whined.

"And we'll be there in seven, so just chill," Xavier said before they continued their walk in silence.

"Alright, you can open your eyes," he said and when Kory did, she gasped. From Xavier's point of view, it would have been a gasp of surprise, but the real reason Kory gasped was because they were at the beach she had shared that one drunken night with Richard at.

"Do you like it?" Xavier asked, gesturing towards the blanket with food on it set up as a picnic.

"It's very sweet of you Xavier," Kory said, not wanting to hurt his feelings by telling him that she absolutely hated the spot. This spot reminded her of her stupidity for getting drunk and of Richard.

"No, no thoughts of him today. Today it's just me and Xavier," Kory thought, mentally slapping herself.

"Glad you like it," Xavier said, smiling at her while they sat down to enjoy their meal.

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"Richard how about you escort Ms. Moth to our table," Bruce suggested, though it was more like an order.

"How about you let me get the hell out of here? I don't care about this stupid dinner party or Ms. Moth," Richard snapped back.

"I'm just trying to help you get over Kory," Bruce said, regretting right away that he had said her name.

"Yeah well nothing you can do or offer is going to help get me over Kory. She was like my life Bruce and I love her," Richard said, glaring at his adoptive father.

"She may have been your life, but you obviously weren't hers. God Dick! Why do you have to be so dense! Kory loved you, but you hurt her and more than once. Don't you think this is hard on her too? Think back to all last year Richard and think of all the times that you've hurt her. I'm surprised she even got back together with you in the first place, let alone sleep with you," Bruce lectured.

"You don't know anything about me or Kory!" Richard yelled before pulling back his balled up fist. He was about to launch it forwards, which would land Bruce with a broken nose, but the person he least expected to see, was holding him back.

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Yes I have ended with an evil cliff hanger! I'm SO SORRY for the long wait for an update! Things have been really busy with family and school. My brother just started baseball so I have to go to some of his games and my sister has started winter guard so I'm going to all of those competitions too and they take up ALL Saturday. Yesterday she had one and I had to wake up at 5 in the morning and didn't get home until like 1:30 the next morning. Also testing is going to start soon in school so teachers are laying on the homework and I'll have to go shopping soon for my cruise in April to Mexico.

So things are busy in my life right now, but I really do hope to be able to update the next chapter sooner.

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter even though it was a hell of a wait for it... Please review!

Kattie